REVOLVER:I'VE JUST had my biannual look at what's in the singles charts. Goodness, it's all looking very strange these days. Yes I was aware of the existence of David Guetta and Tinie Tempah – but when did they set up camp at the business end of the charts? And about 50 per cent of all the singles seem to have a "featuring" credit: last week's Top 10 had Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg, Eminem featuring Rihanna, B.O.B. featuring Hayley Williams, Tinie Tempah featuring Labrinth (one of the worst songs you'll ever hear), Usher featuring will.i.am, Kelly Rowland featuring David Guetta, and so on.
The “featuring” nonsense is something that’s always been around, but the record companies have made it de rigueur over the past 18 months. A lot of new artists need either a lift-up from a bigger name or a dance-floor remix before their single is allowed see the light of day. The bonus is that you’re appealing to two fan bases and can always put the resulting hit on two albums.
You’ll have noticed that all the “featuring” singles come from the urban/rap/pop/dance end of the musical spectrum. This is because the singles charts have now atrophied to the extent that these are the only genres being released in the 45rpm format. Something of a record was set in the UK charts two weeks ago, when the entire top 10 consisted of urban acts.
Even if you cast your net to the wilds of the Top 40, you find two rock singles – by the virtually unknown bands Train and The Pretty Reckless.
You simply won’t hear a guitar sound in the charts or on daytime radio these days. The beauty of the dominance of urban/pop/dance for the labels is that because of Pro Tools and the copious technology available in the modern studio, you really just need a figurehead to front the enterprise. They’re invariably young, have a certain Top Shop look, and because they wouldn’t know a musical instrument if they were banged around the head with it, they’re not going to be asking awkward questions during the recording process – just shove them into the vocal booth with a bottle of Sunny Delight and a packet of Wotsits and let the laptop do the bleepy bits.
The lack of variety is having a knock-on effect. Many dedicated rock music radio stations are reporting that they’re having to scour foreign markets to find something vaguely rockish for their playlists.
On a medium- to long-term basis, the constriction of the charts to a single genre is damaging album sales – and remember singles are released as loss leaders for albums.
Guitar bands sell a lot more albums than urban acts (there are exceptions, but not many) and so many of today’s urban acts just get one or two of their singles downloaded before they are chucked into the dustbin with their overstock being used as landfill.
And the gap between who’s in the singles chart and who’s headlining the major music festivals has never been so wide – at the moment it’s like two different worlds.
The problem with Tinie Tempah and his ilk is that you may you able to squeeze out a few hit singles, but the live show is going to be a disaster. Apart from the Jay-Zs, it’s a very rare thing indeed to see an urban act headlining a big festival. Even Eminem has problems getting a good live show together.
On the other hand, if you put a Springsteen and an E Street band into a big field, at least you can see what instruments are being played rather than just hearing a bunch of DAT tapes with supposedly “live” vocals thrown on top.
Which is not to say that urban music is without its merits – some of the best songs from the past 10 years have emerged from the genre – but simply because of its composition process and the software used to make it palatable for daytime radio trends (sound compression and so on) – it doesn’t readily transfer from the studio to the stage.
No, we don’t want Ocean Colour Scene, but we don’t want Tinie bloody Tempah or the plasticine dance of David Guetta – or the “funky beats” of a Dan Deacon either, for that matter. There must be a third way.
